Callers trying to dial in to telephone town hall met with non-working number

By John Aguilar Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
06/19/2013 10:22:11 PM MDT

Updated:
06/19/2013 10:29:52 PM MDT

Potentially thousands of people were shut out of a telephone town hall meeting held Wednesday evening by RTD to discuss a new mobility study being conducted in the northwest corridor because the agency published an incorrect phone number for callers to dial.

Regional Transportation District spokesman Scott Reed said news releases and public announcements went out with the number 877-299-8493. The number should have been 877-229-8493.

"We did make an error; that was our mistake," Reed said. "We do apologize for that."

The correct number was tweeted out by RTD with 14 minutes left to go in the meeting.

Reed said more than 5,000 people living in the northwest part of the metro area who had been contacted by RTD to be on the call participated, but those trying to dial in were stymied. He said a recording of the town hall meeting should be available on the RTD website, rtd-denver.com, by next week.

A Camera reporter was able to catch one question at the end of the meeting, when a caller named Warren asked RTD what its rationale was for spending the bulk of its FasTracks tax revenues on lines in the south metro area and not in areas in and around Boulder.

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Voters approved a sales tax increase in 2004 to build FasTracks, which calls for 122 miles of commuter and light rail and 18 miles of bus rapid transit service in the eight-county metro area. But the proposed rail line between Denver and Longmont has been thrown into doubt by the high cost of sharing tracks with BNSF.

RTD Board Chairwoman Lorraine Anderson responded that it wasn't just Boulder County that supported the FasTracks concept.

"All the rest -- Boulder, Broomfield, Jefferson, Arapahoe and Douglas (counties) all supported FasTracks at well over 50 percent," she said. "We just have to stay positive, and we'll get it done."

Wednesday's telephone town hall meeting was meant to inaugurate the Northwest Area Mobility Study, a 13-month effort to identify transportation improvements in the northwest quadrant. The study's focus will be on commuter rail in the northwest corridor, rail along the north metro corridor, and bus rapid transit along U.S. 36, U.S. 287 and Colo. 119.

RTD Director Chuck Sisk, who represents the Boulder County area, said during the call there was strong feeling from the participants that the Northwest Rail is still very much a top priority.

"The tone of the evening was one where the callers were genuinely willing to listen to and express concerns that they want FasTracks to be built," said Sisk, former mayor of Louisville.

And he said several callers' concerns that bus rapid transit -- bus service that mimics train service in terms of its frequency and convenience -- would be seen as a suitable, and final, substitute for rail had to be allayed.

"The answer was definitively 'no,'" Sisk said.

In an interview before the meeting, Sisk said he anticipated that residents in the U.S. 36 corridor would express frustration about the pace of rail coming to the northwest corridor.

"We may get an earful tonight because people in the northwest corridor are frustrated that they haven't gotten what they deserve," he said.

Without additional FasTracks taxes, the Northwest Rail isn't expected to be built until 2042.

But Sisk said there is a movement afoot to put a statewide sales tax measure on the ballot in 2014 to help fund transportation improvements, and he anticipated the northwest corridor would get a healthy proportion of that money if it is approved.

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